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Nixscho Romano
Complete with a title in a language that the author made up, Nixscho Romano is part treatise on epistemology, part paranormal action novel, and part conspiracy mystery thriller, with a heavy helping of literary shout out and horror tropes... and that's before the cosmic horror mindscrew sets in. It tells the story of a team of self-styled paranormal investigators: Coleridge, a paranoid academic emerging from a decade of self-imposed isolation who believe that paranormal threats present global danger on a cataclysmic level, Quentin, his loyal partner and the team muscle, and Rose, a brave but sheltered young woman with an uncommon skill in drawing weird things into the open. The are joined by Enigma, a (possibly) psychic cat. At the beginning of the series, they are down on their luck, with only a few vaguely paranormal encounters and no proof. However, as the plot thickens, more and more supernatural secrets come to light, while the mindscrew gets heavier. A *Action Girl *Agent Mulder: Compared to normal people, everyone on the team comes off this way, but Coleridge takes the cake. Rose is his default Scully, though often it isn't disbelief in the paranormal that drives her but skepticism regarding Coleridge's methods. *All Myths Are True: Coleridge certainly thinks so. *All Theories Are True: Discredited theories are a major theme. Some of the most common include the theory of the humors, miasma, vitalism, and aether. *Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: One of Rose's unnamed friends. *A Man Is Not A Virgin: On the one hand, Rose's virginity is way more explicit than any other character's and she's the only one to get Virgin Power out of it, but neither Coleridge nor Quentin is sexually active, with Coleridge stated to have been celibate for over ten years. Nobody knows anything for sure about Quentin. *Ambiguous Disorder: Everyone suspects this about Coleridge. All we know is that he is severely paranoid, has little empathy, is given to fits of rage, and focuses obsessively on his research. Later episodes begin to call into question his ability to distinguish fantasy from reality, though the Mind Screw nature of these moments makes it impossible for the viewer to be sure either. **Quentin reports that grad-school age Coleridge made it onto his "shortlist for people who may be sociopaths." He implies in saying so that Coleridge is better now than he was, though certain traits are definitely still there. **To say nothing of Quentin himself. Although he normally seems to be The Stoic, there's some indication that he legitimately has no real emotions at all, and that is his devotion to Coleridge is a reaction of someone who wants nothing, but feels the need for an objective purpose. **Possibly an enforced trope in-universe. Coleridge has expressed his opinion that modern psychology focuses far too heavily on meaningless labels. *Ambiguous Gender: The cat, though unspecified is a better term. On the few occasions when gendered pronouns are used, Rose uses masculine, Quentin uses feminine, and Coleridge, the actual owner, never uses such pronouns. *Antiquated Linguistics: Coleridge slips in and out of them, ranging from old fashioned to Shakespearean. He occasionally uses Latin, as well. See also Sophisticated as Hell. *Asexual: Definite hints of this for Coleridge, who has reportedly never had a sexual encounter not closely linked to acquisition or assertion of power, and has been celibate ever since his Heel Realization. In general, he has suggested disgust with the human body, especially its fluids, and also has this line: :Colerdige: (after a seductress has flashed her breasts) You realize, the mammary gland is essentially a modified sweat gland atop a base of adipose tissue. :Seductress: Your point being? :Coleridge: So why would I want to look at your sweaty fat? :Seductress: You're not like other men I know. :Coleridge: Do I look like a hungry infant instead? :Seductress: If you mean empty and childish, then yes. Given the number of potential love interests which he has, aromantic may not be the case, though he if so, it still manifests antisocially. The case is less spelled out for Quentin, but given that he has no apparent desire for any worldly pleasure, the effect seems about the same. Rose at least had a boyfriend, (sort of, they realized they had been Fust Friends all along), but she seems not to be bothered by the idea of remaining a virgin for the rest of her life. *Attending Your Own Funeral: Coleridge does it. It's implied not to be the first time, and is part of the indication that he is most likely living under an assumed identity. **This is even conversed, when it is suggested that Coleridge could hardly be expected to resist witnessing something like his own death. *Author Avatar: Coleridge is reportedly one, per Word of God. The same Word of God that called Coleridge an idiot. *A Woman's Place Is in the Kitchen: Coleridge's misogyny subverts this: :Coleridge: Poor simple Quentin. A woman's place is in the kitchen... in a prison... on an island... on a planet circling a dying sun. B *Badass Normal: Most of the main cast regularly find themselves pitted against supernatural beings. Quentin is the most badass, but the most dubiously normal. *Badass Preacher: Father Jack is not only a Catholic priest, with all the trappings, but he is also a poster child for Real Men Love Jesus, and able to hold his own. This isn't to say he's an entirely healthy individual. *Bathos *Beware The Nice Ones: Rose is the most normal, down-to-earth, sociable, and innocent of the main characters. She's also willing to put up with a lot. She also has killed more than her fair share of monsters. **Quentin is possibly a more clear-cut, if less visible example. At best he can come off as gentlemanly and doting. At worst, he is an Unfettered Implacable Man out for blood. And this is usually aimed at those who forget that his apparent Undying Loyalty is not My Master, Wrong or Right. *Bizarrechitecture: Coleridge’s house was designed to be mentally plausible but deeply odd and unnerving on a more subconscious level. Worth noting is that though it is a large house, it has many small rooms, all attached to one another in unintuitive, labyrinthine ways. It was also supposed to evoke the sense of living in a tunnel or burrow, with small rooms and inadequate lighting. *Borrowed Catchphrase: Apparently Rose is fond of using Coleridge's catchphrases when he isn't there to see it. *Bottomless Bladder: Being borderline The Needless, at least to outward appearance, Quentin has this as an extension. Apparently he can hold it for hours with ease, and possibly well over a day or two. This is demonstrated during a cross country trip, where Rose and Coleridge stop to pee several times, but Quentin, to their suspicion and fascination, never does. C *Cannot Convey Sarcasm: A subversion. Rose, despite being, or perhaps thanks to being, a Sarcastic Devotee, apparently has difficulty turning off her sarcastic tone, and says things that can be interpreted as either sarcastic or not, often with few to no clues as to whether they really are. *Cats Are Magic: The team cat is possibly psychic or otherworldly, or so Coleridge is convinced. It certainly looks the part, being entirely black and having Mismatched Eyes, one blue, one green, as well as possessing Ambiguous, or at least unspecified, Gender. **One episode implies that the cat may be a full-blown Eldritch Abomination in A Form You Are Comfortable With. *Clint Squint: Squinting is one of Coleridge's primary forms of expression. *Cool Big Sis: Rose is an unusually wholesome variety when in Friend to all Children mode. *Conspiracy Theorist *Crazy Survivalist: Coleridge was this for a while. Then he decided to get more proactive in his methods. D *Darwinist Desire: When Coleridge considers the idea of obtaining an heir, he begins to consider it exclusively in terms of procuring a viable egg cell. This leads to an Imagine Spot where he pictures potential children with every woman he knows (i.e. most of the female cast) and ranks them based on the genetic predispositions of their mothers. He then concludes that they are all inadequate and realizes what he really wants is a clone. *Dysfunction Junction: **Coleridge is a paranoid Conspiracy Theorist control freak with a Hair Trigger Temper. **Quentin is an emotionless Unfettered given to absolute loyalty. **Rose looks normal next to them, but lacks common knowledge in favor of obscure knowledge, has difficulty sustaining most conversations, and speaks in a manner that sounds permanently sarcastic. E *Everybody Has Lots of Sex: This is often implied to be the case - for everyone but the main characters. *Exhausted Eye Bags *Extreme Doormat: Quentin is Coleridge's to command, and he appears to feel nothing on the matter. The reason for this is later revealed to stem from the fact that Quentin sees human will as arbitrary and irrelevant, but seeks for specific purpose. For this reason, he is devoted to Coleridge, who acts according to a duty which he perceives independent of human will. This goes both ways, however. As long as Quentin believes Coleridge to serve higher duty, he will be loyal to him, but if he comes to believe that Coleridge has lost sight of it, his loyalty will be lost. *Eye-Obscuring Hat: Quentin is fond of his. F *Faking The Dead: Coleridge does this once onscreen, and is implied to have done it more than once. It's played ambiguously at first, with a legitimate funeral being held, the only oddity being that Rose looks like she's trying not to laugh. It's eventually revealed that she wasn't in on it, but merely knew Coleridge well enough to expect this kind of thing from him, and could barely keep a straight face. **Discussed when it is suggested that Coleridge could never be suicidal because he is too self-obsessed: you can't observe yourself committing suicide. It's then proposed that he is pseudocidal instead. *Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Exactly what exists is up for debate, but the show suggests that any number of things may exist. The whole show runs on rejection of Meta Origin, so this is hardly surprising. *Fearless Fool: According to Word of God, the main characters are all fearless in different ways. Coleridge is described as "fearless like a cornered animal." *Five Man Band: A meta-example. Word of God has it that the five man band was considered in the crafting of the dynamics of the main trio - if it had completely fallen apart. In an ideal world, Coleridge would be the smart guy, Rose would be the lancer, and Quentin would bethe big guy. Instead, Coleridge is the leader, Quentin is the lancer, and Rose is expected to be the chick. *Final Girl: Rose seems to take inspiration from this trope. She's decidedly the Token Wholesome amongst her friends, and finds that Nature Adores A Virgin. (She also seems to be playing off certain Virgin Power tropes; she hasn't met a unicorn yet, but you get the sense it would like her.) It's a deconstruction, however, as despite the fact that supernatural events tend to spare her, she is nonetheless a Weirdness Magnet. *An alternate interpretation is that she is a deconstruction of the trope in reverse: childlike and sexual innocence are part of a defense mechanism inspired by the things she has witnessed and survived. *First Name Basis: Only Rose calls Coleridge by his first name. It isn't obvious since she addresses him far more often than anyone else, but it’s implied she hadn’t realized the full implications of this until later in the series. The flashback to their first meeting reveals that he finds this odd, but doesn’t correct her. *Flyover Country: The main setting, for when the characters are lounging around, is set in a part of South Dakota that painfully invokes this. *For Science!: Johann's guiding principle, tied only with For The Love Of Beautiful Women! *Four Girl Ensemble: Rose's little circle of friends. Rose is actually the sweet/naïve, even if she may be the most intelligent overall, on account of being a social Genius Ditz at best, Annie is the team mom, while the mannish de facto leader is an aloof dark haired girl. The sexy one is straight up really gets around (she actually hit on Coleridge once). *Freud Was Right: In one of Coleridge's Sanity Slippage fever dreams, he finds himself naked and surrounded by other men, also naked. They are armed with swords. Coleridge doesn't get a sword. Overseeing everything is a giant statue of a nude woman with three rotating faces. Careful examination reveals they are Rose, Katrina, and Riley. *Friendly Enemy: Coleridge and Rose become these in a surprisingly heartwarming moment. Coleridge asks Rose to be his enemy, explaining that friendship is fleeting, but enemies never forget one another. It almost borders on a Relationship Upgrade: :Rose: "Will we be jealous enemies?" :Coleridge: "Of course. Only I can be allowed to kill you." G *Genius Bonus: The story crawls with obscure references to mythology, religion, folklore, cryptozoology, history, art, Medieval science, and literature. Viewers Are Geniuses sets in, as well. *Gravity Is Only A Theory: Coleridge monologues about this: "They say that gravity is only a theory. Actually it's a phenomenon, but the explanations behind it are theories. Naturally, they're the best, most time-tested explanations the collective genius of mankind can produce, which is why they're probably wrong. H *Hair-Trigger Temper: Coleridge: so many Berserk Buttons, so little time. *Hates Being Touched: One of Coleridge's many character tics. *Haunted House: One of the earliest instalments is set almost entirely in one. Coleridge attempts to take a scientific approach to this, trying to systematically quantify the psychological pressure on the inhabitants, and recording the stimuli involved in the perception of ghostly activity. This manages to freak out the residents, while at the same time, his attempts to violently enrage the haunting forces begins to turn his team against one another. *Heterosexual Life Partners: Quentin and Coleridge. Though all things considered, heterosexual may not be so much the case as asexual. *Hypocritical Humor: Despite owning an absurd number of guns, Coleridge is strongly in favor of gun control, his rationale being that people who hoard guns pose a significant threat to others (that is, to him), and besides, whereas he already has as many guns as he could need. I *I Can Change My Beloved: Katrina tried this on Coleridge, through largely unspecified means. It possibly worked, as he did give up his life of power-hungry ruthlessness, but it also led to a downward spiral of severe paranoia and isolation that eventually cut him off from both her and his parents, the only people to somehow still vie for him while he was an amoral social Darwinist jerkass. *Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The titles tend to be one word, rarely English in origin, and are often philosophical or mythological references. Examples include Gnosis, Maschalismos, and Gotterdammerung. *I Know Your True Name: Acknowledged. Word of God notes that Coleridge is well aware of it and would not be above adopting a false name and making everyone on his team do likewise, but refused to confirm or deny that Coleridge had actually done so. *Imagine Spot: In an uncharacteristically straight comedic scene, Coleridge ponders the idea of obtaining an heir - by obtaining an egg cell, probably from a woman he already knows. He proceeds to imagine several pairs of children, male and female, each a predicted mix between him and their mothers, and ranks them based on their mothers' genetic predispositions. To make the matter more fun, it isn't spelled out who the mothers are, leaving the audience to figure it out themselves. *Implied Love Interest: Coleridge and Rose, possibly? They both seem to be the only person the other trusts, but whether that makes for a platonic relationship or not is up for debate. To complicate it, a lot of their relationship is off screen. **It is made clear that they are in some sort of partnership. They call themselves enemies, because enemies don't forget one another. **The alternate future where Coleridge does get married confirms that he likes Rose better than his wife. *In Medias Res: Most episodes begin with the characters already involved in the plot, usually through some sort of investigation, following a short time skip from the previous episode. This serves to both acknowledge but leave out however long they may have searched fruitlessly, and also facilitates condensing episodes into shorter periods of time. The series as a whole also begins In Medias Res, with background details, most notably how Rose came to join the team, revealed later. *Innocent Fanservice Girl: Whereas Rose is more of a token wholesome, it seems her sister used to go full circle become this trope from her total unawareness of sexuality. Of course, it doesn't tend to be played for obvious fanservice, given that she's underage in all the flashbacks. *Intimate Haircut: There's one with Coleridge and Rose. Interestingly, the intimacy is less the haircut itself per se (it doesn't lead to anything) but the fact that he actually allowed someone to hold a sharp object that close to his head and neck. *It's Always Spring: Averted. It's usually winter, but there is some seasonal change. L *Lap Pillow: A scene played partially for laughs consists of this. Coleridge, depressed that his plans haven't worked out sits on the couch gloomily. Rose, sitting uncomfortably on the other side, attempts a light Get Ahold of Yourself, Man smack, but he goes limp and tips over away from her. She manages to pique his interest for a moment, causing him to sit up, but disappoints him again. This time he falls toward her, gets promptly knocked off her shoulder, and falls onto her lap. Sternly asked to get up, he instead makes a reference to Hamlet, whereupon she threatens to knock him off personally. :Rose: ...and if you say 'country' again I will knock you off myself. :Coleridge: Sorry. I'll saying nothing instead. *Libation for the Dead *Like Parent, Like Spouse: Coleridge's long lost but apparently highly significant would-have-been lover bears a peculiar similarity to his mother. **Which is a little odd, given how much Coleridge hates his parents. **It's even more notable in the (non-canon) Gender Flip side story Tiresias, where Female!Coleridge looks like her, which makes sense if she resembles a younger version of Coleridge's mother. **Which is odd, since male Coleridge is commented to be somewhat similar to his canon father. *Love Makes You Crazy: :Coleridge: I believe in the love that the Greeks wrote of. :Rose: (squicked) You mean...? :Coleridge: The powers that be infect you with burning, vile passion that swallows you up and rends your will and drives you to madness and then they abandon you at the gates of Hades. :Rose: Oh that kind of Greek love! Yeah, that sounds like you. M *Magic Versus Science: Coleridge is very hung up on this, perceiving most scientists to be Flat Earth Atheists and Arbitrary Skeptics. To them he’s a laughingstock (or at least he thinks he is. Not many have even heard of him). **Subverted however, in that he believes himself to a scientist, and the only true scientist at that, because the rest ignore evidence to fit an ideology. *Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Nearly everything. *Mind Screw: While the main plot is more or less sensible, background details are thrown which threaten to make the whole thing impossible to understand. This is apparently intentional, as the work is meant to be impossible to understand. To quote the author: :"Romano is a bit like a myth. When I was young, I had an illustrated book of traditional faeries. It terrified me. I realized that such a book could only be made when people looked out and realized what they did not know. So I made an unknowable universe." *Mismatched Eyes: The team cat has them. Coleridge is convinced it is psychic, though not because of the eyes specifically. *Moral Sociopathy: While it's debatable whether Coleridge actually is a sociopath (he has a number of traits associated with the condition, but it is never stated outright) his MO is very much this trope. He cares very little for humans as such, but subscribes to an ethical code which he identifies as duty, and looks down on moral codes that seek mutual goodwill as ultimately self-serving. *Mr. Exposition: Coleridge is this. Sometimes to Rose, and sometimes when he mutters things to himself as he tries to figure things out. He’s an Unreliable Expositor at times, too, to make matters more complicated. *Muggle Best Friend: Annie to Rose. Deconstructed: Annie has always taken it upon herself to try to help Rose enjoy a normal life, even when Rose was just a naïve girl with dubious social skills. When Rose joins with Coleridge, Annie tries to help her not fall into total isolation from the wider world, but ends up in over her head. N *Nerves of Steel: Quentin. According to Word of God, the main characters are all fearless in different ways. Quentin is fearless on the grounds of having little to no fear to control in the first place. *No Accounting For Taste: Rose has this reaction to meeting Katrina, sarcastically asking "Is that what he's into?" Although some interpret this as actually meaning What's She Got That I Ain't Got? *Nobody Poops: Averted on an almost One An Episode basis. Some of the cases are actually significant to the plot, though others seem to be a deliberate screw you to this trope. **In a flashback to when Rose first joins the team, she is seen in the bathroom in Coleridge's house, noticing, with quiet confusion and perhaps some apprehension that the toilet seat is padlocked shut. **In another episode, Coleridge makes a comment about how vampire bats urinate while lapping blood to rid themselves of plasma with no nutritional value. Cut to Rebekah (who he is investigating for vampiric tendencies) in the bathroom, audibly peeing. *Noble Male Roguish Male: At first glance, educated, formal, obsessively precise Coleridge seems to be the noble to hulking, crudely speaking, inelegant Quentin. In actuality, Coleridge is rude, conniving, and prone to picking fights, while Quentin is polite, cultured, and wise. *No Last Name Given: Quentin and Rose. Coleridge's surname (Sleet) is revealed in a gag. O *Old Flame: Coleridge's ex-girlfriend (where girlfriend is a term used very loosely), appears in an episode (actually two, one is a cameo). This happens at the same time that he is investigating phenomena best described as "the dead consuming the living". Coleridge decides this is probably not a coincidence and suspects that she may be planning to attack him. *Omniglot: Not extreme, but it's worth noting that every member of the trio is multilingual. Coleridge is identified as knowing a number of languages, including Latin and Greek, and some others beside. He also converses with Quentin in Russian, largely because Rose does not know Russian. She later reveals, however, that she does know Spanish, which leaves Coleridge feeling threatened, as he does not. **Suddenly Always Knew That: Largely downplayed, as most of Coleridge's language skills (along with his general breadth of knowledge) can be handwaved by the nearly ten years he spent in isolated study. Some of the other language skills are foreshadowed by the characters reading in other languages. *Our Monsters Are Different: Played with all over the board. More often than not, monsters are based on their oldest depictions (e.g. the vampires), but sometimes appear in different interpretations at the same time, making it unclear what is true. P *Parental Abandonment: We eventually learn that Coleridge considers his parents to have abandoned him. Technically he abandoned them, but they forced his hand. **It turns out that Coleridge's increasingly dangerous antisocial behavior, pressured him toward some unspecified form of treatment or therapy. He rebelled and left them, and they haven't spoken or interacted since. **Reportedly the last words they exchanged were about the proposed plan, and his parents' hope that in time he would understand why it was necessary. **Fridge Horror: Coleridge has faked his death more than once. His parents probably think he's dead. **According to Rose, the nicest thing Coleridge has ever said about his parents was that they didn't have a bastard son (in response to accusations that he was a less literal bastard). *Perfect Health: Averted, sometimes for no apparent reason than realism. Interestingly, it never gets Coleridge, thus making his supposedly poor health something of an Informed Flaw. *Politically Incorrect Hero: Coleridge's monologues on certain social issues can be positively cringe-inducing. It's not so much that he a bigot, but that he's willing to say very sensitive, if technically true, things in very blunt ways. **He holds some very outdated social order views, most notably a few regarding women. What keeps him somewhat sympathetic is his devotion to certain social constructs as absolute rules, regardless of whether they benefit him (though he is a white male; most of them do), and believe that whether people like them or not, these rules must not be changed. **There's also a the lack of sensitivity. His belief that homosexuals would be better off without their "affliction" isn't without some basis, but... **And then there's the belief that genetic engineering will eventually produce a biologically superior master race. He considers it inevitable, and doesn't sound entirely happy about it, but the fact that it sounds an awful lot like what he is (asexual white males) hints at some latent supremacist notions. **On top of that, he's very xenophobic and even admits that he thinks a utopia would be racially segregated. However, unlike a straw bigot, it's actual played more as a legitimate phobia, resulting in an realistically strong, unwilled aversion to strange people and things. His intention with the utopia bit was that all people (he thinks) are naturally xenophobic and really only want to live with others like them, so in an ideal world, why fight that? **All in all, the one really thing about him is his inability to grasp that other people don't want to be assimilated into "socially acceptable" molds, even though he himself resents people who expect him to fit their own expectations. *Powers That Be: To take a truly Agent Mulder interpretation, these include any number of nebulously related secret organizations, an apparently alien entity whose idea of communication involves encoding messages in patterns of improbable events, a demonic being who may or may not be the living personification of people's desire to kill in his name, a digital intelligence that is the sum total of all interconnected computers, and Coleridge's cat. *Properly Paranoid: When you come down to it, Coleridge is right that there's an awful lot of weird stuff out there... *Property of Love: Although an aromantic individual normally, it becomes clear that whatever romantic side Coleridge has desires this out of a wife. This is actually surprisingly heartwarming, first because what he imagines has the literal property aspect downplayed as a technicality of a highly traditional marriage, and second because we know that this is what his view of stable, supportive love actually looks like. R *Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Characteristic of the dialogue, especially of all of the main characters. Rose is given to a sort of stutter where she repeats a word several times before thinking of the next one, while Coleridge is guilty of disjointed and often endless sentences, repeating himself, and depending on the circumstance, either loading up on verbal filler or completely omitting it in favor of long pauses. The trope is somewhat subverted, however, as it is often used to demonstrate eccentricity, so normal people demonstrate it less. S *Sarcastic Devotee: Rose constantly criticizes Coleridge's personal flaws, but never fails to do her part in a mission. *Science is Bad: One of the villain leaders thinks so, not so much because it leads to evil as because it is pointless. He believes that the universe is fundamentally incomprehensible and that any understanding we have is our own inability to understand that we don’t understand, meaning we have been wasting our time concerning unapplied science and getting very lucky with applied science. Surprisingly, it is Coleridge who argues with him, but mostly because Coleridge hates him. *http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeldomSeenAnimals: Coleridge and Quentin's spirit animals are a desman and a yet unspecified deep-sea mollusk or worm, reportedly. Rose's is a thylacine, which are not only seldom seen, but extinct. *Ship Tease: Word of God states that he teases Rose and Coleridge because it amuses him, but will never go through with it because he finds their ten year age gap too unsettling. *Shirtless Scene: Somehow Coleridge manages to get far more of these than the considerably more muscular Quentin. They tend to hit home the fact that Coleridge is very very thin. *Sleeps With Everyone But You: At times, it seems that the entire world (strongly implied to run on Everyone Has Lots of Sex) is this to the main cast. Given that they're all a little odd, if not completely screwed-up, it may not be so surprising that they're excluded. *Smart People Play Chess: Averted in Coleridge's case. While there's no word on whether he's any good at it, he would sooner not play than risk losing. *Smoking Is Cool: Averted most of the time, where it is at best a thing that happens, and none of the main characters smoke. However, smoking is nearly ubiquitous in some of the flashbacks, and darned if it isn't cool. *Stepford Smiler: Fr. Jack, it seems. Unless he really is that cheerful all the time, which is possibly more terrifying. *Stoic Woobie *Strong Family Resemblance: Rose and her sister. They could pass for identical twins, at least when they were kids, but the narrative is very unclear on whether they actually are. One account even implies that they are not only different ages, but ''half-sisters with different mothers. **Downplayed in Coleridge's case. His father is described as looking like him, [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Dissimile only with a different chin, gray hair, a different haircut, thirty extra years, and all the hallmarks of a life not spent in bitterness, fear, and sleep deprivation.] *Surreal Horror: Appears fairly often, especially when it is unclear whether the events are real or not. Which is rather often. T *Temporary Love Interest *Terrified of Germs: Coleridge zigzags this. On the one hand, he is obsessively neat and constantly sanitizes. On the other, he tends not to avoid dirty situations and even admits the futility of attempting to sanitize his life. *Thanks for the Mammary: Coleridge manages this, courtesy of Rose. Since he wasn't looking and Rose isn't exactly busty, it appears she assumed he wasn't aware and said nothing. Later he momentarily gazes at this hand before reaching for his beloved hand sanitizer. *The Chew Toy: Coleridge was meant to be someone whose getting punched would be comical no matter how much you like the character. Taken even farther in the non-canon retellings, including the gender flip one, which portrays Female!Coleridge getting punched in exactly the same light. *The Cynic: Coleridge can be very cynical, especially regarding human nature. Interestingly, he's about as far from a nihilist as can be, creating a combination that has proved to make him surprisingly charismatic with certain people. *The Gadfly: Coleridge lives and breathes this trope. His dialogue is filled with diatribes about touchy subjects that he may or may not even care about, as well as words aimed to mess with people's security, question their values, make them feel challenged, and/or subtly mock them. *The Ingenue: Rose is not this, exactly. However, there is a definite body of evidence that she once was. It especially becomes clear when she lets down her guard and becomes easily fascinated by toys and novelty items. *No Name Given: Many characters are never given names. Two of Rose's friends never get names, nor does her sister, or the recurring bartender, or the cat, or Coleridge's parents... And then if you add the characters implied to be operating under pseudonyms, you lose Coleridge, Quentin, Rose, Caelise, Johann, Gurchin... -practically everyone but Token Normal Annie. *The Needless: Quentin has been seen to eat and sleep, but can do without them for seemingly superhuman stretches if need be, and never shows any weakness when denied them. In addition, his pain tolerance threshold is extraordinary, and he has also demonstrated a seemingly Bottomless Bladder. *The Paranoiac *Therapy Is For The Weak: Coleridge believes so. And he's not about to be brainwashed by those mindbending medications either. *The Walrus Was Paul: Word of God has it that certain objects in the background were added that defy ready explanation. *The Watson: Rose is technically this, because her inexperience makes Coleridge talk down to her. Subverted in that he mostly does it to be condescending. Also subverted in that she talks up to him to see if he’ll keep up, making much of her dialogue Genius Bonus. *This Is Gonna Suck: Arc Words: "We're screwed." *Token Wholesome: Rose. It plays into her role as a Final Girl deconstruction. **It's revealed at one point that this trope is present throughout her entire wardrobe, which is quite small to boot. It's also worth noting that most of the show is set during winter, and the cast wears appropriate clothing. *Training From Hell: Coleridge's nearly decade long retreat from society to master an enormous amount of knowledge is strongly implied to be the scholarly version of this. *True Companions: The trio. It's especially notable for Coleridge, a man incapable of trusting others, who slowly comes to be unable to accept that Quentin, or Rose, eventually, could betray him. **Getting to this stage isn't pretty, however. Before Coleridge can conclude that Rose would not betray him, he first decided that she must not betray him. This prompted him to attempt to control her and attempts at severing ties with all of her family and friends. V *Vagina Dentata: Coleridge refuses to rule out the possibility. Apparently, he keeps book with a bookmarked illustration, which Rose finds. She is squicked. *Virgin Power: Rose's virginity is taken to be a factor if not the entire reason that she tends to draw out the supernatural. She's pointed out on one occasion that there's really no evidence that it isn't a more intrinsic trait to herself, as there is no control group, but Coleridge believes she oughtn't to mess with a good thing. **It is implied that it's not because Rose is a virgin that she has power, but because of who she is, which happens to be very chaste, and by extension, a virgin. **Technical Virgin: Averted. It's eventually disclosed that Rose has never even held hands with a man (or a woman, for that matter). ***She also doesn't swear, drink, or dress provocatively. On the other hand, she has been known to employ lethal force. *Virginity Makes You Stupid: Zigzagged with Rose. She's more socially awkward than stupid, and quite intelligent intellectually. While she can be naïve, it's clear that she was raised with more traditional values. U *Unkempt Beauty: Rose has aspects of this. Her hair is constantly somewhat messed up, owing in part to the fact that it seems to be quite irregularly cut and longer in some places than others, for some reason. W *Wall of Weapons: Coleridge has one. He also has a wall of crosses and holy water. *Weirdness Magnet: Quentin and Rose are considered to be this, and Coleridge considers it a valuable skill. As for Coleridge himself, he seems to be a Weirdness Magnet Magnet, and thus brings weird things to himself indirectly. **Although he was the one to find his cat, so... ***Actually it found him. *What a Piece of Junk: Coleridge's car is not only beaten up, but downright ugly. Word of God says it is intended to mirror his attempts and failures to live in the modern world. However, the car is extremely reliable, as it is something of an automotive Iron Buttmonkey. *What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made On Drugs?: Inverted on a meta-level, according to a joke made by the author, who wanted to give the story the feel of a psychotic going off his meds. *Would Hit A Girl: The Gender flip segment Tiresias of the non-canon special Metamorphoses, it turns out that everyone is this if that girl is Female!Coleridge. Y *You Need To Get Laid: Although he doesn't actually advocate getting laid, Jack clearly Coleridge is enormously sexually frustrated. **Coleridge does derive a lot of angst from his celibate status, but not because he actually wants sex. In actuality, he is asexual, and his only sexual encounters were used exclusively intended to assert and attain power. Having given up that lifestyle, he is extremely averse to actual intercourse, but struggles with finding adequacy within a sexually-based society, leading him to feel challenged by women, who represent this weakness, and those men who are not likewise bound. *Affably EvilSoft-Spoken Sadist *Sugar and Ice Personality *Implacable Man: Quentin can be one. *Multiple Choice Past: Quentin's backstory is flagrantly self-contradictory, and he seems to be fully aware of it. The show seems to portray it as all true. *Anti-Hero: The whole cast to some degree. Coleridge's mild Blue and Orange Morality make him the most noticeable example.